A SCOTTISH dad who claims his daughter contracted an incurable disease after a routine jab is one of a growing band of parents planning to take legal action for compensation. At least a dozen Scots parents - and more than 1200 others across the UK have sent details of ailments experienced by their children after the vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) to a firm of solicitors which is collecting evidence for a court hearing. David Symington, of North Queensferry, had his daughter Rebecca (14) vaccinated for MMR following Government advice in 1994.

Crohn's Disease

A short while later she developed painful mouth ulcers and went to the Dental Hospital in Edinburgh. The symptoms gradually grew worse, including cramps and stomach pains, and in October, 1995, tests revealed she had developed Crohn's Disease. David noticed the symptoms began after Rebecca's vaccination and traced a group called JAB -parents of children who may have contracted ailments after vaccinations.

They in turn put him in touch with Dawbarns, a firm of King's Lynn solicitors, who specialise in medical injury cases. David says, "Rebecca's life changed-after the vaccination. Crohn's Disease affects the whole digestive system and is treated with steroids and other drugs. "Each time it flares up my daughter loses two or three weeks from her schoolwork. The symptoms include bowel inflammation, mouth ulcers, painful joints and tiredness. "There were warnings of a measles outbreak in 1994, 50 we followed Department of Health advice and had Rebecca vaccinated.

"But the Government hasn't shown any scientific evidence that there was going to be an outbreak. "While we would probably still have Rebecca vaccinated, the Government must investigate fully the risks and perhaps consider compensating those for whom the vaccination produces ill effects." Other parents claim the side-effects of MMR include autism, encephalitis and juvenile arthritis. The Legal Aid office has already awarded £150,000 to help them prepare their cases. The Department of Health concedes the MMR vaccination, routinely given at 12-15 months, can cause side-effects - but says these are very rare and the advantages outweigh the risks.

Concern

Richard Barr, a partner in Dawbarns, is co-ordinating the action. He explains, "Our views are tentative, but we believe there is a case to answer. In the vast majority of cases there is no event which could account for the injury. "Our own investigations give cause for considerable concern that the vaccines may not be safe -- or for that matter measles, mumps and rubella are not as dangerous as they are claimed to be." Possible links between MMR vaccination and Crohn's Disease are being investigated by Dr Andrew Wakefield at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead. He maiiitains that increases in cases do coincide with the introduction of MMR.

He claims he has collated enough evidence to justify an independent Government review - and that autism also appears to have increased since the introduction of the vaccine. Solicitor Mr Barr hopes to establish a link between vaccination and side effects based partly on research by Dr Wakefield.>>>

Diagnosed with Crohn's disease last year, the Bayport boy, 12, had finally found a treatment that helped him absorb the nutrients his body otherwise rejected. Every night before he goes to bed, Ian plugs himself into a machine that pumps Peptamen 1.5, a high-calorie nutritional formula, through a tube inserted directly into his stomach.

But his parents were stunned when they were informed in March that their insurance would not pay for any more cans of the formula for the rest of the year. The Suffolk County Employee Medical Health Plan, which provides coverage for Ian through his father, William Fries, a county correction officer, limits the benefit of certain formulas to $2,500 a year.

At $1,100 for a 30-day supply, that would "last this boy 21/2 months," William Fries said. "This is his life right here." He and his wife, Tara, said their frustration mounted even further when they appealed the denial of the claim but were forced to wait week after week for an answer because the committee charged with ruling on such requests failed to meet. Finally, two weeks ago, their appeal was denied.

Jeffrey Tempera, Suffolk's labor director and co-chairman of the health plan's labor/management committee, declined to comment on the case. But he said the plan clearly states the cap for such benefits.

The Fries family has launched a public campaign, testifying before the Suffolk County Legislature and consulting a friend who is an attorney for legal advice. The parents, in the hope the committee will reconsider, have submitted additional information, including letters from the boy's doctors. The committee has a regular monthly meeting scheduled for Friday .

In a new letter to the committee, Ian's gastroenterologist, Dr. Jeremiah Levine of Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, wrote that Ian's need for the formula "is both to supply adequate calories for growth as well as to help control disease activity ... to help control both manifestations of his Crohn's disease."

Pediatrician Mireille Constant of East Islip in her letter gives her "professional opinion that he must continue this course of treatment or there will be a serious decrease in his well-being."

In a recent interview in their home, William and Tara Fries said that before Ian turned 5, he began to fall behind his peers in height and weight. A few years later, his parents said, he developed abdominal cramps, diarrhea and rectal bleeding. The once-energetic boy began to tire easily.

The Frieses spent nearly two years taking him to doctors and putting him through various tests, including three colonoscopies. In January 2002, doctors found abscesses inside his colon and he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which causes often painful inflammation in the small intestine. There is no cure for the illness, which in children can slow growth and development. Options for treatment include drugs to control inflammation or suppress the immune system, nutritional supplements, and surgery to remove part of the intestine, depending on the severity of the illness.

Ian made progress when he began taking a nutritional formula through a tube in the nose, his parents said. He grew 13/4 inches, put on 12 pounds and his symptoms subsided. But after four months, "he wouldn't tolerate it anymore," his mother said of the nasal tube. She said his doctors told them they could temporarily halt the formula feeding. They hoped the disease had gone into remission.

Within two months, however, Ian had lost several pounds and had again become fatigued. In October, Ian had a tube inserted surgically through his abdominal wall into his stomach. His condition began improving and he started to regain the weight he had lost. But at the end of March, when Tara Fries went to pick up more formula from the drugstore, she said she was told the claim had been denied.

When they learned the health plan committee was scheduled to meet on April 18, they scrambled to file an appeal. But the meeting never took place. The day of the scheduled meeting, the union leaders who make up half the committee's membership walked out when a Newsday reporter and photographer arrived to attend. No meetings have occurred since, and the issue of whether they should be open to the public is expected to be decided by an arbitrator by the end of the month.

In the meantime, Tempera and co-chairman Peter O'Leary, president of the Suffolk Detectives Association, have been empowered to make decisions for the committee, and in a letter dated June 6 they denied the Frieses' appeal. They cited the benefit booklet's reference to formulas that pass through the stomach and are broken down in the intestines: "the maximum benefit for enteral formulas is $2,500 per year."

The letter also stated that the county's self-insured plan is not required to comply with state mandates, but cited a similar cap in state insurance law as an indication that such limits are common. The state Office of General Counsel issued an informal opinion on May 18, 2001, representing the position of the New York State Insurance Department, that the law requires that insurance policies include full coverage for the cost of medically necessary enteral formulas.

"It's a no-brainer. They should be covering this," said Edda Ramsdell, executive director of the Long Island chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. "I don't understand why they are giving him such a hard time. A child's health is at stake here."